Rector of St. George Church priest Igor Tarasov visited Ukraine last month. He is working on his degree in Theology taking courses at the Kiev Theological Academy located at the famous Cave Lavra monastery. Fr. Igor successfully took his final exams and is going to begin writing a thesis.
Being in Kiev Fr. Igor participated in an opening ceremony for the exhibition prepared by the Department of External Affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It took place on October 5th. The exhibition was named “No to the revolutions creating anti-Christian attitude”. Some diplomats and community leaders of Ukraine and Arab countries were present and had speeches at the ceremony. Fr. Igor was also invited to speak as a representative of the Orthodox Church from America.
In his speech Fr. Igor stressed that American Orthodox community does not share the same view of enthusiasm regarding revolutions which took place in some Arab countries. These social tribulations very often lead to the rise of anti-Christian attitude and hostility towards Christian communities in the Near East. He expressed the solidarity with the Christians suffering in the Arab countries.
On Sunday, October 7, Fr. Igor served the Divine Liturgy at St. Spyridon’s Church in Kiev. He preached a sermon on the readings from the Gospel assigned for that day. He particularly spoke about the Saint commemorated on that day, the holy first-Martyr Thecla. She was a disciple of St.Paul and preferred to live a life of chastity rather than be married. Finally, St. Thecla was martyred for Christ. The Gospel lesson assigned for her commemoration is  telling about the wise and foolish virgins. Fr. Igor pointed out that while the women Saints like Thecla imitated the wise virgins from the parable, many other young ladies imitate the foolish ones. This leads to the loss of divine grace, but people are always able to change and acquire salvation.
On Sunday, October 14, on the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, Fr. Igor was in the city of Kamianets-Podilsky. He concelebrated the Divine Liturgy at the local cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky.
Our parish priest enjoyed his trip to the old country and brought our parishioners little presents – icons of the different Saints from the Kiev Cave Lavra.